High times!

Mathew Oneill with his new PB of 19lb 1oz...Well done pal!

Hi guys, not a huge amount to talk about this week as I've not been out much. This last week or so has been a bit of a washout with regards to my fishing....I really wanted to spend the last fortnight of the 2014 season chasing the Barbel of the Wye. Trouble is the river has been up and down like a yo-yo for the last month, with the past fortnight being the worst yet. Only today is the water abating a little and hopefully enough for my session I have planned tomorrow.

I'd like to start of this blog entry with a little congratulations to my good friend Mathew Oneill who I took pike fishing a few weeks back and despite our best efforts it was typically me that caught the fish! Well, he went out on his own to the River Ely last week and caught not only his first proper croc but a bloody big one at that too! 19lb 1oz and a new PB for him. Well in my son!

I was going to pay my club stretch a visit today but the River was still pushing out over 2M and raging through chocolate brown with some snow melt present, just to really kill the fishing! Well, the wind has dropped off a little, the air is warming slightly and the cloud dispersing....Time for a trip out in the morning hopefully.

Like chocolate and slamming through on the Taff!

I've spent the day keeping an eye on the EA river levels page and the water is slowly dropping away. Provided things stay relatively dry tonight then it should be down to around 1.7M by morning and still falling during the day. With this in mind I feel it may well be worth a dabble for the barbel. I've got myself a nice KG lump of Garlic Luncheon meat and the ever faithful River Monster Boilies ready to go. Keeping my fingers firmly crossed for a result!

Last Friday I decided I'd have a quick dabble on the Taff in Cardiff again, chasing the Grayling that reside in there. The river was a completely different place to that of the previous week and a raging torrent of brown turbulence had replaced it's rather more somber mood of the prior week. This made things a whole lot more difficult. I decided to have a go at them using float fishing tactics for a change and after donning my chest waders, setting up a 4 swan crystal loafer, I walked to the same area that I had done so well in the prior week.

A lot harder to come by this week!

I dropped down the bank side into the water and immediately I could see it was up quite considerably on the prior session and I was almost out of my depth from the word 'go'! I started pulting in a few small quantities of mixed red and white maggots at the head of my trotting area and after about 5 minutes I made my first cast into the torrent.

The water was pounding its way through and a trott lasted less than 20 seconds or so before the float was way out of my eyesight. It was a good 40 minutes before I had my first bite and it took a real scale down in tackle and bait to get that! I had to whittle things down to a single red maggot on a size 20 hook and 2lb 12oz hook link to get things going. I also had to back off the feed being introduced as well and bites seemed to only occur when I fished the float down the swim on its own without any loose feed. These Grayling weren't particularly obliging this time and after 2.5 hrs fishing I had just 4 or 5 to my name.

Well, fingers crossed for the Wye session in the morning and with the river still dropping as we speak, hopefully it'll be bang on come daylight hours. Next Sunday will see me meet up with one of my best mates, Bob Willcockson. He's talked me into parting with my hard earned spondoolies and we're off to Shaftsbury in Dorset and the rather prolific Todber Manor fishery.

I used a similar set up to this with just a heavier float

We're hoping to do a 48 hr session after some nice carp on Big Hayes Lake then we're going to have a go at a spot of early season Catfishing in the Paddock. I can't wait if i'm honest with you! It's been a bloody long time since I went to a prolific venue such as Todber and I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into that style of angling again. It'll also be great to catch up with my buddy!

Tight lines all and see you soon
K x